Watching Sunday Night Baseball, I was lamenting the state of the modern nerd. Then Craig Counsell came up to bat. In this day and age, I think this guy and his goofy stance is the closest we’re going to get. Someone get this man some glasses.
(The Onion also wrote a pretty good article about Counsell).
Tags: brewers, Craig Counsell, distorted faces, modern nerd
(4.88 out of 5)
It’s an interesting point, but if we start applying the coveted nerd title to every guy with a wacky batting stance, I think we’re going to find some serious problems with the theory. We may be able to get a more accurate tally if we can differentiate between “batting stance” and “bat position”. Most players thought to have weird stances actually just held the bat goofily (Julio Franco, Gary Sheffield, Eric Davis, etc). Let’s get the interns on this one.
Maybe Counsell is a modern day nerd. He definitely exhibits one of the traits from nerd players of the past: the ability to trick teams into giving him playing time despite consistently poor offensive performance.
In over 4600 plate appearances over 14 seasons, Counsell has an OPS of .689, which equals an OPS+ of 78. In only two of those seasons did he post an OPS above league average (1997 and 2000) and he didn’t have more than 189 plate appearances in either year.
Here’s something incredible: in 2003, Counsell had 351 plate appearances for the Diamondbacks and posted an OPS+ of 61. He was then traded to the Brewers in the Richie Sexson deal. In 2004, Counsell had 545 plate appearances for the Brewers and posted an OPS+ of 69. He then signed with the Diamondbacks as a free agent and posted an OPS+ of 89 in 2005 and 70 in 2006. In 2007, he signed a 2 year/$6M deal with the Brewers as a free agent and put up an OPS+ of 65 in 2007 and 76 in 2008. In 2009, the Brewers re-signed him for one year. What is going on here?
Basically, he was really bad with the Diamondbacks and Brewers. But, then, when they were finally rid of him, both teams got him back and he was terrible again. Don’t either of these teams have AAA players that can fill Counsell’s role?
Another incredible note: in 1998, Counsell had 73 plate appearances with the Marlins and posted an OPS+ of 1! I know it’s a small sample size, but 1?!
I guess his appeal is in his intangibles – the guy is a winner (1997 and 2001).